Hello all!
I'm looking for a little help choosing a deck. I'm playing in a Commander League with a huge variety of decks. I'm going to need something that can play nice but also switch gears and combo quickly (or stop someone else from comboing) depending on who's seated across from me. The last time we met I was on Prossh. Everyone was convinced I was the threat. I told them I'm not a combo deck and, sure enough, the player to my left combo kills the entire table. We have everything from dedicated combo decks to folks playing Commander Precons. Budget isn't really a consideration and I'll play any color combination. Any ideas?
How i feel about competitive players and casual players in EDH: The competitive are german tourists, the casual are italian tourists, both in a italian beach. The italians asking themselves "why are the germans here?" make a legitimate question, the answer is because the beach is beautiful, no matter the country you came from. The italians wanting to ban the germans are dumb, because if the germans pay for their stay and follow the rules like everyone else, they have the right to be in the beach. Hovewer, if the germans started to ask themselves "why are the italians here?"... they would be dumb as hell.
i'd recommend playing something that you like. ...i mean, isn't that sort of the point of edh?
But if you're genuinely looking for something that's a response to the local meta, then like 'dirk' says, a group hug-like control deck is probably the way to go. stops opposing combos, doesn't oppress the peeps with precons, doesn't feel threatening to anyone else in the game.
I might even suggest you try something like a WU control deck with things like trinisphere, ethersworn canonist, chalice of the void, and all those goodies that more competitive decks struggle against (since they tend to play more spells per turn and have a lower CMC in general), but barely affects the lower powered decks.
There were some decks i recall seeing/discussing called policing decks, where they work like the police in a very large range of deck quality metas. No idea if just searching for police would turn anything solid up.
Just for clarity, we're talking about a political, controlly Phelddagrif build, like the one in my sig. Not the more well-known group hug Phelddagrif builds, which are all horrible trash that besmirches the good name of our lord and savior Phelddagrif. If you're curious, you should definitely take a look at my primer (imo).
Now, I'm not 100% sure Phelddagrif is what you're looking for but I'll throw down some info for you to make up your own mind.
Phelddagrif is designed to be reasonably competitive in a wide range of metas, and to create balanced games in unbalanced metas. It's built within my philosophy that one should always strive to play as well as they can - hence, I rarely put fast combos in my decks because, if I'm playing well, I'm probably going to end up combo killing a table of relatively casual decks, which is likely to be boring and unfun for other players. Phelddagrif was originally an attempt to answer the question: how can you make a deck whose power scales to the power of the meta even if you're playing correctly?
- BUT -
If you don't subscribe to my philosophy, and you're happy playing sub-optimally in order to match the competitiveness of the other players (for example - tutoring for a value piece when you could have tutored for a combo piece and won), then you don't have as much reason to play Phelddagrif because you can just play a semi-competitive deck and misplay in order to match the power level of the group. Personally I hate this approach but it works as long as no one minds or doesn't notice your intentional misplays.
One thing you can't generally do with that approach is balance a meta, though - Phelddagrif can do a great job of hammering down the overpowered decks (especially those fragile fast combo decks) while helping out the weaker ones and ultimately pitting them against each other to leave yourself the victor. The path to victory with Phelddagrif is super satisfying imo, and takes a lot of skill to pull off - but when played well it has a very high winrate and is very hard to counter.
Another minor benefit of Phelddagrif is that it can be built quite strong even on a budget. No critical pieces are more than a few bucks (and really there aren't any totally critical pieces except Phelddagrif itself). But you can sink a decent chunk of change into it if you want to make it operate at peak performance.
tldr:
I absolutely recommend Phelddagrif unreservedly if you want to balance your meta and give everyone a shot, while also being able to be a fair matchup in a wide range of power-level games. But if you just want to make sure YOU have a shot in any game, then you could just play a semi-competitive deck with a few combos and misplay in lower-powered games, if that approach doesn't make your skin crawl (as it does mine).
(No moral judgments here at all, no sir )
EDIT: I should also point out in the interest of fairness - there are other things you can do to try to match power level to a certain extent - clone, theft, etc. The thing I think that Phelddagrif does, that those decks can't do, is to get fairly close to cEDH levels of competitiveness, whereas most clone-themed decks can only really match power with relatively low-powered metas (also balancing the power of the other decks in the pod, as mentioned).
As a more general thing: remember to pack your removals regardless. There will always be stuff to get rid of, even if everyone is playing precon-level, and if a more dedicated combo deck is on the table, the more removal you have the bigger chunk of them you can dedicate to the player wanting to combo off. I am plenty guilty of building a deck, playing a game, and then realizing I have three counterspells and couple of path variants in the entirety my UW deck...
The usual answer of "extended borrowing.dec" also works. If you're playing with your opponent's stuff, you're scaling to the table naturally.
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():
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X Hope of Ghirapur Swordpile W Ghosty Blinky Anafenza U Nezahal- Big, Blue and HERE! B Gonti Can Afford It R Etali, Primal 'Whatjusthappened?' G Polukranos Wants More Mana WU The Exalted Vizier Temmet WB Home, Athreos WR Basandra, Recursive Aggression WG Karametra, Momma of Lands UB Wrexial Eats Your Brains UR Arjun, the Mad Flame UG The Fable of Prime Speaker BR Hellbent, Malfegor Style BG Jarad, Death is Served RG Running Thromok WUB Varina and ALL the Zombies WUBYennett, the Odd Pain-Train WUR Zedruu the Furyhearted WUG Arcades' Strategy, Shmategy, Sausage and Spam WBR A Case of Mathas' Persistent F*ckery WBRLicia's League of Legendary Lifegain Layabouts WBG The Karador Advantage PackageWRG Gahiji Rattlesnake Collection UBR Jeleva... does... things UBG Damia's Just Deserts URG Yasova's Has More Power Than Sense BRG Wasitora, Bad Kitty WUBRBreya, Eggs, Breya'd Eggs WUBG Tymna and Kydele, Extended Borrowing WURG Kynaios and Tiro, Landfall Impersonations WBRG Saskia Pet Card EnchantressUBRG Yidris of the Chi-Ting Corporation WUBRG Tazri's Amazing Allies
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I'm looking for a little help choosing a deck. I'm playing in a Commander League with a huge variety of decks. I'm going to need something that can play nice but also switch gears and combo quickly (or stop someone else from comboing) depending on who's seated across from me. The last time we met I was on Prossh. Everyone was convinced I was the threat. I told them I'm not a combo deck and, sure enough, the player to my left combo kills the entire table. We have everything from dedicated combo decks to folks playing Commander Precons. Budget isn't really a consideration and I'll play any color combination. Any ideas?
Ummm, ok?
Trap your friends in an endless game with this 23-card combo!
But if you're genuinely looking for something that's a response to the local meta, then like 'dirk' says, a group hug-like control deck is probably the way to go. stops opposing combos, doesn't oppress the peeps with precons, doesn't feel threatening to anyone else in the game.
I might even suggest you try something like a WU control deck with things like trinisphere, ethersworn canonist, chalice of the void, and all those goodies that more competitive decks struggle against (since they tend to play more spells per turn and have a lower CMC in general), but barely affects the lower powered decks.
There were some decks i recall seeing/discussing called policing decks, where they work like the police in a very large range of deck quality metas. No idea if just searching for police would turn anything solid up.
Legacy - Solidarity - mono U aggro - burn - Imperial Painter - Strawberry Shortcake - Bluuzards - bom
Just for clarity, we're talking about a political, controlly Phelddagrif build, like the one in my sig. Not the more well-known group hug Phelddagrif builds, which are all horrible trash that besmirches the good name of our lord and savior Phelddagrif. If you're curious, you should definitely take a look at my primer (imo).
Now, I'm not 100% sure Phelddagrif is what you're looking for but I'll throw down some info for you to make up your own mind.
Phelddagrif is designed to be reasonably competitive in a wide range of metas, and to create balanced games in unbalanced metas. It's built within my philosophy that one should always strive to play as well as they can - hence, I rarely put fast combos in my decks because, if I'm playing well, I'm probably going to end up combo killing a table of relatively casual decks, which is likely to be boring and unfun for other players. Phelddagrif was originally an attempt to answer the question: how can you make a deck whose power scales to the power of the meta even if you're playing correctly?
- BUT -
If you don't subscribe to my philosophy, and you're happy playing sub-optimally in order to match the competitiveness of the other players (for example - tutoring for a value piece when you could have tutored for a combo piece and won), then you don't have as much reason to play Phelddagrif because you can just play a semi-competitive deck and misplay in order to match the power level of the group. Personally I hate this approach but it works as long as no one minds or doesn't notice your intentional misplays.
One thing you can't generally do with that approach is balance a meta, though - Phelddagrif can do a great job of hammering down the overpowered decks (especially those fragile fast combo decks) while helping out the weaker ones and ultimately pitting them against each other to leave yourself the victor. The path to victory with Phelddagrif is super satisfying imo, and takes a lot of skill to pull off - but when played well it has a very high winrate and is very hard to counter.
Another minor benefit of Phelddagrif is that it can be built quite strong even on a budget. No critical pieces are more than a few bucks (and really there aren't any totally critical pieces except Phelddagrif itself). But you can sink a decent chunk of change into it if you want to make it operate at peak performance.
tldr:
I absolutely recommend Phelddagrif unreservedly if you want to balance your meta and give everyone a shot, while also being able to be a fair matchup in a wide range of power-level games. But if you just want to make sure YOU have a shot in any game, then you could just play a semi-competitive deck with a few combos and misplay in lower-powered games, if that approach doesn't make your skin crawl (as it does mine).
(No moral judgments here at all, no sir )
EDIT: I should also point out in the interest of fairness - there are other things you can do to try to match power level to a certain extent - clone, theft, etc. The thing I think that Phelddagrif does, that those decks can't do, is to get fairly close to cEDH levels of competitiveness, whereas most clone-themed decks can only really match power with relatively low-powered metas (also balancing the power of the other decks in the pod, as mentioned).
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
The usual answer of "extended borrowing.dec" also works. If you're playing with your opponent's stuff, you're scaling to the table naturally.